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Overview

A spellbinding and darkly humorous coming-of-age story about an unusual boy, whose family lives on the fringe of society and struggles to survive in a hostile world that shuns and fears them.He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his aunt Libby and uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixed blood, neither this nor that. The boy at the center of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks.For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and narrow escapesalways on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will finally know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they’ve been running from for so long are catching up fast now. Everything is about to change.A compelling and fascinating journey, Mongrels alternates between past and present to create an unforgettable portrait of a boy trying to understand his family and his place in a complex and unforgiving world. A smart and innovative storyfunny, bloody, raw, and realtold in a rhythmic voice full of heart, Mongrels is a deeply moving, sometimes grisly novel that illuminates the challenges and tender joys of a life beyond the ordinary in a bold and imaginative new way.

Product Details

About the Author

Stephen Graham Jones is the author of fifteen novels and six story collections. He has received numerous awards, including the NEA Literature Fellowship in fiction, the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction, the Independent Publisher Book Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the This Is Horror Award, as well as making Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Horror Novels of the Year. Stephen was raised in West Texas. He now lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife and children.

Editorial Reviews

03/21/2016In this lyrical but meandering novel, Jones (After the People Lights Have Gone Off) delicately portrays the coming of age of a young boy growing up in a family of werewolves. Throughout the novel, the unnamed narrator and his aunt, Libby, and uncle, Darren, both werewolves, wander the present-day American South working low-wage jobs while always wary of the dangers of staying in one place for too long and being recognized for what they really are. The narrator's voice is heartfelt and absorbing as he learns the rules of being a werewolf while always wondering whether he will become one himself, a question that drives the story to its moving conclusion. There are jailbreaks and various battles, including one with a bear, alongside several encounters with other werewolves. While the episodic structure sometimes causes the novel to feel as aimless as its characters, it's still an often moving portrait of a family struggling to survive in a world that "wants us to be monsters." (May)

Mongrels makes a meal fit for any werewolf: meaty, surprisingly sweet of heart, and immensely satisfying...As real as anything you’d find in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Only wiht more teeth.

Tor.com

You ever read a book and know from the first page that it’s going to be something special?...SGJ’s words are reasonable enough to convert the biggest skeptic into a believer. He’ll have you howling at the moon and digging through the trash in no time.

LitReactor

Hilarious, painful, fascinating, and satisfying...Will easily be remembered as one of the most unique and unforgettable werewolf tales ever written. It’s both a postmodern deconstruction and a wild love letter to a classic creature of legend, told in a way that only Stephen Graham Jones can tell

Mongrels isn’t just a coming-of-age story or a horror story. It looks at the world through a disturbing, uncomfortable lens, and offers up a brutal mythology of werewolves. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and I won’t forget it anytime soon.

Carrie Vaughn

Mongrels exists somewhere in the borderlands of literary and genre fiction, full of horror and humor and heart, at once a nightmarish road trip and a moving story about a broken family leashed together by their fierce love and loyalty. A bloody great read.

Benjamin Percy

Stephen Graham Jones is as powerful as the monsters herein.

Josh Malerman

With lupine tongue tucked well into cheek, Mongrels is at once an adolescent romp through the tangled woods of family history and a rich compendium of werewolf lore old and new.

Christopher Buehlman

05/15/2016Having been raised by werewolves after his grandfather's death, the boy knows he's different. Taken on the road by his Aunt Libby and Uncle Darren, he and his adoptive parents never settled in one place for long, staying on the outskirts of towns and society. After traveling across the South for ten years, Darren and Libby sense the time is approaching when they'll be able to determine whether their nephew shares their "mongrel" nature. Weaving werewolf lore, a coming-of-age tale, and wrong-side-of-the-tracks tropes, Jones (After the People Lights Have Gone Off) has written a riveting story about fierce family ties amid the monstrosity of a bloody lineage. VERDICT Horror fans will dive deep into this strong literary work, with its dark humor that is sure to attract readers of all speculative genres.—KC

Library Journal

2016-02-18A boy raised by werewolves chronicles the hurt and confusion of growing up strange. Prolific postmodernist writer Jones (After the People Lights Have Gone Off, 2014, etc.) continues his deep dive into genre fiction with this messy coming-of-age novel that attempts to blend Southern gothic, the country nuance of Daniel Woodrell, and the blood-and-guts horror of John Horner Jacobs, with mixed results. Our unnamed first-person narrator tells the story of his upbringing among a traveling pack of werewolves. After his grandfather dies in a grisly transformation, the boy is left with only his Uncle Darren and Aunt Libby to look after him. On the cusp of adolescence at about 12 years old, he can tell he's changing but not what he's changing into—his family is convinced he's just late in turning into one of them, but he remains unsure. The novel has little unifying plot other than a series of interconnected vignettes and the boy's running commentary on the nature and character of werewolves. It's a lot of this: "We're werewolves. This is what we do, this is how we live. If you want to call it that." The most compelling moment comes when the boy meets a girl, Brittany Andrews, who wants him to turn her into a werewolf, but this subtle plot is cast away, too. In some ways, it's a love letter to the American South, and Jones' portrayals of rural Americana ring true in many ways. Horror enthusiasts will also dig the graphic mythology here—transformations are as bloody and visceral as anything this side of An American Werewolf in London. But in trying to strip bare the language and view the world through an adolescent lens, the book largely apes the experience of growing up—and is likely to leave readers confused, frustrated, and impatient. A Holden Caulfield analogue dropped into an old horror movie with a soundtrack by Warren Zevon.

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